RHOBH’s Bozoma Saint John learned her home burned down on social media

On January 23, 2025By Littum

Bozoma Saint John learned of her home burning down on social media — Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

Bozoma Saint John was not at home when she found out that her Malibu home had been burned down by the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles.

“How do you hold it?” Andy Cohen asked her on Tuesday, January 21, episode of See what’s happening live. She replied, “Well, that’s a bit of a difficult question, you know. It’s a difficult time because there are so many people who have lost everything, and it makes me wonder how we can be resilient, and how you can keep going when things like this happen. And I’m doing my best.”

Asked if she had time to prepare for the fires, Saint John, 48, revealed she was outside the US when her house was hit. “I was in Zambia and I saw my house on Twitter and that’s how I found out it was gone,” Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star shared. “It was devastating and I felt so helpless.”

She added: “There was nothing I could do. You can’t send somebody to get anything or anything. And so I just tried to get back as quickly as possible.”

Saint John owned her home for “about four years” but noted that she worked 25 years to afford it. “(I’m) in deep grief. I mean, I’m not trying to compare grief to other people’s grief or anything like that, but the hard thing is that it was more than just a house,” she continued. “It wasn’t just my home, but a home for my family and friends. I had a keypad on the house, not a keyhole, so people could just enter a code and go in. And then we all lost a home.”

As for how her daughter, Lael, 15, is coping, Saint John said her only child is “doing well” and is finding “community” in friends who also lost their homes. (She shares Lael with her deceased husband, Peterwho died of cancer in 2013.)

Santa Ana winds have caused wildfires to spread across the LA region since January 7, destroying numerous homes, schools and businesses and forcing thousands to evacuate.

Saint John announced the loss of his Malibu residence via an emotional Instagram posts on 9 January “This is the house I wanted. The house I prayed for. I worked for the house in blood, sweat and tears,” she wrote along with pictures of herself and her daughter in the house over the years as well as footage of the wildfire damage. “The house where I put a keypad instead of a keyhole in the front door because I wanted all my family and friends to have a code and use the house whenever they wanted.”

Saint John said she found “peace” with the home “after struggling with racist neighbors and a community that made me buy it in a trust in a trust so no one would know that widowed, single black woman with a teenager shopped at the exclusively held beach.” She added: “This was my EFF YOU I’m here house.”

She ended her post by writing, “This is an unimaginable loss. I am grieving with the rest of Los Angeles as it burns… and even though I have found words to write here, there is nothing I could say in this moment to describe this feeling.”

Several of her other Bravo stars offered their condolences in the comments, including RHOBH‘s Dorit Kemsley. “I AM SO SORRY MY FRIEND. My heart is absolutely broken for you, Lael and the whole family,” commented Kemsley, 48, while The Real Housewives of Orange County‘s Shannon Beador wrote: “I’m so sorry!!!”

Check LAFD website for local wildfire alerts and click here for resources on how to help those affected.

Related: RHOBH’s Bozoma Saint John and late husband Peter’s relationship timeline

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